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>From today's Daily News:
Posted on Wed, Sep. 18, 2002
Protest group taking on city tax board
Coalition pushing for total system reform
By MARK McDONALD
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For years the Board of Revision of Taxes, a publicity-shy board with an obscure name, has set the market values of all real estate in the city.
And every year a small number of property owners appeal those assessments. An even smaller number of them prevail.
But nobody has ever challenged the system, its assumptions or the results [emphasis mine -- ASK], says board chairman David Glancey. There has simply never been a frontal assault on the valuation mechanism that turns the city tax rate into real dough for the city and the School District.
That is about to change.
The Coalition for Fair Taxes is preparing to take on the board. The group has a Web site, www.Phillytaxes.org, contacts with scores of community and civic groups, and a politically savvy leader who knows how to battle in City Hall.
Terry Gillen, a former Rendell administration economic-development official who ran for City Council in 1999, is developing a short-term strategy to stop the board's proposed 2003 assessments and a long-term goal of basic change.
"People are just so desperate for information," said the South Philadelphia ward leader. Some of the more well-off protesters, she said, are saying they plan to leave the city.
"We can't let that happen. People don't feel they have a voice in this crazy system. We need to change that," Gillen said.
In the short run, she said, her group will push the two bills now in City Council that call for freezing the 2003 assessments at the 2002 level, thereby denying the city and School District an estimated $35 million increase in taxes.
In the longer run, the group will push support for the ballot question in November that would change the city charter and create a Tax Reform Commission, which would make recommendations on system improvements by Nov. 15, 2003.
Colleen Puckett, president of the Queen Village Association and an organizer of a group called the Coalition of Philadelphia Neighborhood Associations, said that people she has talked with are "very fired up. This issue has legs. Everyone and their cousin is jumping on."
In the late '90s, the board increased assessments for between 12,000 and 45,000 properties. In the last two years, that number leapt to 130,000 and 184,000 out of about 485,000 total residential properties.
This year, with major assessment increases in some of the city's hottest real-estate markets - Center City, Mount Airy, East Falls and parts of the Northeast - there are plenty of troops for the anti-tax movement. In all, the board estimates there are 231,000 properties that will experience assessment increases.
"While it's also clear we need tax reform at the state level," Gillen said, "some are arguing that City Council can't impose a freeze on assessments. I don't know about that, but I'm OK with Council taking action and letting the courts decide this. We need to stop the assessment increases and rethink the whole system."
Councilman Michael Nutter, who sponsored the Tax Reform Commission charter-change proposal, said Philadelphians need a refresher course on how the board works, how the system was created and to whom it is accountable.
"I just don't think you can have an entity that can reach into your pocket and take money and is not accountable to anyone," he said.
As of last Friday, Glancey said that 1,900 appeals had been filed. In 1997, the board received 11,000 appeals.
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>From an AOL feature named "Metro Networks"
Hundreds Attend Meeting Protesting Tax Reassessments
There are signs a tax revolt may be about to spring up in the city of Philadelphia. Hundreds of people turned out for a meeting in Society Hill Tuesday night to complain about the recent property reassessments in the city. Some residents say they've seen their property taxes increase between 100 and 300 percent and they simply can't afford it. Councilman Frank DiCicco called the meeting and urged residents to fill out forms and appeal the reassessments. They were also urged to attend a public hearing scheduled for next Wednesday.
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Al Krigman
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